Tuesday, October 16, 2012

You Want To Gift This

This year for the Little Man's birthmas present (Christmas or birthday, I'm not sure which) his godmother gave him The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. Somehow I have neglected to blog about this, and personally, I am extremely disappointed in myself. I'd fire myself as book blogger except then I couldn't publicly berate myself for my own inadequacies, and what fun would that be?

Anyway, this book: fabulous. I'm normally a little wary of children's storybook Bibles because I've found them to have bland illustrations and watered down theology. This was not the case with the Storybook Bible. If you have a kid and want him (or her) to understand how the entire Bible points to Jesus, get this book. The illustrations are gorgeous--for once Jesus doesn't look like a wimpy white guy--and the writing is beautiful. While there are a few longer words that are not traditionally in a young child's vocabulary, it's not written in "church" language, and my two year old was more than willing to listen to two or three "chapters" of it at a time. We read all the way through it together at the beginning of this year and are now going back through and repeating his favourites (Noah, of course, and David and Goliath, but also the Prodigal Son, because Little Man likes the piggies). The best thing for me, though, is that on the days when I haven't gotten the jump on the boys and managed to squeeze in a quiet time before they wake up, I've found my own faith encouraged by reading The Jesus Storybook Bible with Littles.

This is my reading suggestion for the month of October. If you don't have it and have kids, get it. If you don't have kids but know someone who does, get it for them. I've already passed on two copies and suggested it to a few more people. Christmas is coming up; why not give something that is beautiful, useful, and encouraging instead of just another toy for the toybox?